The BEF(British
Expeditionary Forces)arrived in France on Aug. 14, 1914.The
British commander Sir John French deployed the British infantry corps, under
the leadership of General Horace Smith-Dorrien.General Edmund Allenby
and the cavalry division were kept in reserve.

To stop the Germans orders were given to a
group of Royal Fuseliers to destroy the bridges over
the Mons-Conde canal.The men came under German fire and during the operation five men won the
Victoria Cross.Three of those men were:
Private Sidney Godley, Capt. Theodore Wright and Corporal Charles Jarvis.

On the morning of Aug. 23 General Alexander
Von Kluck and his 150,000 men attacked the
British.French favored a withdrawal to
the coast but the British war minister, Lord Kitchener, ordered the BEF to
retreat to the River Marne.

1stBattle of the Marne.

At the end of Aug. 1914 the three armies of
the German’s northern wing were sweeping south towards Paris.The French 5th and 6th
armies and the BEF (British Expeditionary Force) were retreating.Commander of the 1st German army,
General Alexander von Kluck, was ordered to encircle Paris from the east.The French government departed for Bordeaux
because of Germany’s capture of Paris.About 500,000 French civilians also left by Sept. third.

Joseph Joffre, the commander-in-chief of the
French forces, ordered a retreat to a line along the River Seine, southeast of
Paris.Joffre planned to attack the 1st
German army on Sept. 6th and decided to replace the commander of the
5th army, General Charles Lanrezac, with a more aggressive General,
Franchet D’Esperey.The commander of the
BEF, Sir John French, agreed to join the attack on the German forces.

General Michel Maunoury and the French 6th
army attacked the 1st German army on the morning of Sept. 6.General von Kluck and his entire force met
the attack, opening a gap between his forces and the 2nd German army
led by General Karl von Bulow.The
British forces and the 5th French army were able to advance into the
gap that had been made by splitting the two French armies.

By Sept.10 the
battle of Marne was over.During the
battle, the French had about 250,000 casualties.Even though Germany never published the
numbers, it was believed that the losses were similar to the French.The BEF lost 12,733 men during the battle.

Tannenberg

On the outbreak of WW1,
General Alexander Samsonov as commander of the
Russian 2nd army for the invasion of East Prussia.Slowly he advanced into the southwestern corner with the intention of
linking up with General Paul von Rennenkampf.

The commander of the 8th German
army, General Maximilian Prittwitz, was dismissed for
ordering a retreat when faced with the 2nd Russian army.General Paul von Hindenburg and General Erich
Ludendorff were sent forward to meet Samsonov’s troops.By Aug. 29, Sassoon’s 2nd army was surrounded.

General Alexander Samsonov
attempted to retreat but because he was in a German cordon, most of his troops
were captured or slaughtered.Shocked by
the disastrous out come of the battle, Samsonov
committed suicide.All news of the
defeat of the Russians at Tannenberg was kept from
the public.